Testimony Builds Link To Bomb

May 05, 1997

Prosecutors on Monday sought to link Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols to materials used in the Oklahoma City bombing through a drill bit and a prepaid telephone card seized from Nichols' home. FBI toolmark expert James Cadigan testified that the bit from a cordless drill found in Nichols' home matched marks made on a drilled-out padlock from a quarry break-in in Marion, Kan. Prosecutors contend McVeigh and Nichols stole a detonator cord and boxes of a explosives in the Oct. 1, 1994, heist and used them to ignite the fuel-and-fertilizer bomb used in Oklahoma City. Another FBI agent testified that the search of Nichols' Herington, Kan., home also turned up a prepaid telephone card that prosecutors contend was used to make dozens of calls in search of bomb components.